Natsume is launching a new series of developer diaries revealing the details behind the upcoming farming-RPG, Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley.

Launching exclusively on 3DS later this year, fans have been clamoring for new details about the development behind the game. In the first of a monthly series of diaries, Natsume Inc. producer Taka Maekawa reveals the details behind the innovative new tool system.

“When we sat down to design Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley, we wanted to really study what made the game fun,” said Taka Maekawa, who is producing the game. “We wanted to maintain the core value of hard work leading to great rewards, while minimizing anything that may detract from a fun game.”

“We took a long, hard look at the tool system and decided to go back to the drawing board,” Maekawa continued. “We came to the conclusion that gameplay should flow, so we made three core changes to the tool system.”

The Right Tool For The Job

Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley introduces context-sensitive tools. When a player is standing in front of a tree, for example, there are only certain actions they are logically able to do to the tree. A player can’t shear or milk the tree, so if they have an axe in their inventory, the game will automatically know that they want to chop down the tree. All they have to do is walk up to the tree, push the A Button, and they will chop the tree down! Now there is no need to open the menu to select and equip a tool, which slows down the flow of gameplay.

Call On Your Friendly Harvest Sprite To Upgrade

Instead of upgrading their tools, the Harvest Sprites now act as tool upgrades. It can be frustrating, as well as time-consuming, to hunt down the exact type of ore players need to upgrade their tools. Therefore, in the new game, all they have to do is ask the Harvest Sprites for their help, and they’ll be able to water their crops, mine material stone, collect lumber, and more. They won’t ever have to worry about taking their tools to get upgraded, which will allow them to save time and explore the land!

It’s All In The Bag!

Everything in the player’s bag is at their disposal! Since they can stack up to 255 of each item, storage won’t be a problem! They won’t have to run back to their house, get items from their tool box or refrigerator, and so on, because they can keep everything in their bag. Therefore, when villagers need an item, they won’t have to worry about not having it! The player’s trusty bag will help to save tons of time.

In Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley, players will experience the role-playing farm simulation in a three-dimensional setting for the first time. The game has a fully customizable world, and players can customize their field in any way they see fit: from a field full of tulips like they might see in Holland, to a valley filled with water like Venice, the choice is up to them. Players have never played a Harvest Moon game quite like this!